B V 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Sliel^il.5-5* 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



VICTORY THROUGH SURRENDER 



By REV. B. FAY MILLS 



Victory Through Surrender. Sqr. 16mo., cloth, 
50 cents. 
The well-known evangelist has put into this 
little volume the substance of much of that 
teaching which has proved so largely helpful to 
thousands in all parts of this country during the 
past few years. It is exceedingly pointed and 
practical while deeply devotional. 



A riessage to flothers. Embossed card covers^ 
very chaste^ 25 cents. 
Impressive and inspiring; no mother can read 
this little message without real benefit. 



Power From on High; Do We Need It; What 

I It; Can We Get It? Popular Vellum 

Series^ 20 cents. A cheaper edition for cir- 

culation^ 10 cents; or, $1 00 per dozen, 

"If every Christian could read this treatise and 

act upon it, the Lord's work would receive a 

wonderful impulse."— aS^. Louis Observer. 

"Earnest, cogent, bright, this brief discussion 
must appeal to all classes of readers. JFull of 
illustration and of anecdote, it is yet serious, 
solemn, convincing. It may be read through in 
half an hour; the mark it will make on mind and 
conscience will not soon fade away."— iV. Y. 
Evangelist. 

Fleming H. Revell Company, Publishers 



VICTORY THROUGH 
SURRENDER 



A MESSAGE CONCERNING CONSECRATED 
LIVING 



y 



Q" 



B: FAY'^MiLLS 



iTiV^J^^ 



; 



CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS OF EVANGELICAL LITERATURE 



\ 



\ X"^^ 

X 



,-.x 



1^ 



■^--Ci 






ia4 



The Lieka^y 

OF Congress 



WASHINGTON 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 
1892, by Fleming H. Revell Co.', in the Office of the 
Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter. Page. 

I. Life More Abundant, ... 9 

II. Are You Willing.^* .... 16 

III. Let it be Definite, .... 23 

IV. Make it Complete, .... 30 
V. Count it Done, 43 

VI. The Trying of Your Faith, 53 

VII. Waiting upon God, . ... 62 

VIII. Victory, 73 



^^LIFE MORE abundant:' 

A PORTION of the Church of 
God is hungry. While there is 
a tendency toward materiahsm and 
worldUness on the part of many, there 
are encouraging indications that a rap- 
idly increasing number of Christians 
are hungering and thirsting for a more 
extensive righteousness, as manifested 
in the abiding presence of Christ 
within them. There are tw^o convic- 
tions growing in many Christians; one 
is that they are dissatisfied with that 
which they now have of spiritual 
knowledge and experience and power, 
and the other that there is something 
9 



lo Victory Th^'oitgh Surrender, 

better than they have known, in the 
salvation that has been provided for 
them. Some one has Avell said that 
" Christian experience is the realization 
of that which is already true for us in 
Christ." While I do not mean to sug- 
gest that there is any new principle 
discovered by which a man may walk 
in the royal road of righteousness, I 
do mean to say that there is a life in 
Christ that is so much richer and more 
filled with joy and strength and power 
than the experience of the ordinary 
Christian, as to be almost a different 
thing, worthy to be mentioned in terms 
of contrast rather than of comparison. 
The deepest teachings of Christ are 
almost meaningless for a very large 
number of the members of the church. 
For example, He says, "Abide in me 
and I in you." The statement is made 
that, abiding in Christ, we have actual 



^'' Life More Abitndaiit ,'''' it 

safety (John xv:6); Continual cleans- 
ing (John XV.2); the love of God 
(John XV 119); perfect obedience 
(John xv:[o; i John v:3); love of our 
fellow men ( John xv : 1 2 ) ; answered 
prayer (John xv:7); the bearing of 
fruit (John xv:5, ^^ ^^)5 ^^ power to 
refrain from sin (i Johniii:6 cf. i John 
1:8, 10); and continual .joy (John 
xv:io). 

One of two things is true; either 
that the disciple is possessed of all these 
blessings, or that he is not abiding in 
Christ and Christ in him. In reading 
the epistles of Paul, it would almost 
seem as though he were writing to peo- 
ple of different spiritual experience and 
knowledge from the average disciple of 
the present day. For example, read 
this prayer: 

" That the God of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, the Father of glory, may give 



13 Victory Through Szcrrender, 

unto you the spirit of wisdom and rev- 
elation in the knowledge of Him ; the 
eyes of your understanding being en- 
lightened; that ye may know what is 
the Hope of His calling, and what the 
riches of the glory of His inheritance 
in the saints, and what is the exceeding 
greatness of His power to us-ward 
who believe, according to the working 
of His mighty power, v^hich He 
wrought in Christ, when He raised 
Him from the dead, and set Him at His 
right hand in the heavenly places, far 
above all principality, and power, and 
might, and dominion, and every name 
that is named, not only in this world, 
but also in that which is to come ; and 
hath put all things vnider His feet, and 
gave Him to be the head over all things 
to the church, which is his body, the 
fullness of Him that filleth all in all." 
Here he prays that the power which 



^^ Life More Abundant,'*'^ 13 

God wrought in Christ when He raised 
him from the dead, might be experi- 
enced by his followers. Or take this 
prayer as an example: 

" For this cause I bow my knees un- 
to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
of whom the whole family in heav- 
en and earth is named; that he w^ould 
grant you according to the riches of his 
glory, to be strengthened with 
might by his Spirit in the inner 
man; that Christ may dwell in your 
hearts by faith ; that ye, being rooted 
and grounded in love, may be able to 
comprehend with all saints what is the 
breadth, and length, and depth, and 
height; and to know the love of Christ, 
which passeth knowledge, that ye might 
be filled with all the fullness of God. 
Now unto him that is able to do ex- 
ceeding abundantly above all that we 
ask or think, according to the power 



14 Victory l^hrough Surrcndei\ 

that worketh in us, unto him be glory, 
in the church by Christ Jesus, through- 
out all ages, world without end. 
Amen." 

It is not possible that Paul uttered 
petitions for his friends that would be 
impossible of fulfillment in their expe- 
rience. The very heart of the teach- 
ings of Paul may be summed up in the 
two phrases, "In Christ," and "Christ 
in you." In Colossians i \2^ he says 
that the mystery which was hid for 
ages and generations but that now is 
made known to the saints to whom God 
would make known these mysteries, is, 
" Christ in you, the hope of glory." 

He was able to live a life of which 
the horizon was bounded by Christ and 
the vital principle was Christ; so that 
he could say, " For me to live is 
Christ." " I am crucified with Christ; 
nevertheless I live; and yet not I, but 



^'' Life More AbundaiitP 15 

Christ liveth in me; and the life which 
I now live in the flesh, I live by the 
faith of the Son of God who loved me 
and gave himself for me." 

There is a life of perfect peace, of 
the exact and full knowledge of God, 
of the wisdom of the Spirit, of the 
strength of Jehovah, of the power of 
the Holy Ghost; a life of joy and con- 
tinual victory. 

The object of this little book is to 
endeavor to point out, in the briefest 
and simplest possible manner, by the 
suggestions of Scripture and observa- 
tion and experience, the method ap- 
pointed by God, by which we may en- 
ter such a " highway of holiness," and 
continue therein. 



II. 

ARE rOU WILLING? 

IT requires a great deal of seeming 
sacrifice for a man to be willing to 
be born again. So many are content 
with what they have by nature that 
they are not ^villing to receive what 
they might have by grace. For that 
which is born of the flesh is flesh, and 
that which is born of the Spirit is spir- 
it, and the flesh v^ill alw^ays lust against 
the spirit, and the spirit against the 
flesh. If a man might be born of the 
Spirit and retain w^ith satisfaction the 
life of the flesh at the same time, there 
might be a great many more w^ho 
would seek to enter the kingdom of 
16 



Are Ton Willing? 17 

God ; but in reality no one would enter 
it, for the vital principle of living in the 
kingdom of God is that we walk in the 
Spirit and so do not fulfill the lusts of 
the flesh. The very first question that 
confronts a person who is thinking of 
beginning a Christian life is the ques- 
tion at the head of this chapter. Are 
^you willing? It is the question of ques- 
tions. When a man is willing to let 
God lead him, God always teaches him. 
He that wills to do the will of God, 
knows of the doctrine. When a man 
is willing to be transformed by the 
grace of God to be, not what he de- 
sires, but what God desires, God always 
transforms him. 

It is sometimes astonishing to see 
how little a person need know or be in 
order to begin to be a Christian. The 
only question is this: are you willing ? 



1 8 Victory Th7'ough Surrender, 

This is also true of the entrance into 
the larger life and the living of it. In 
every development of knowledge and 
peace, and strength, and growth, and 
power, there is still the same question: 
"Are you willing?" For God has 
chosen v^eak things, and base things, 
and despised things, and things that 
are not, in order that no flesh may 
glory in his presence. To have the 
peace of God, it is necessary to be 
willing to be satisfied with divine 
peace, rather than with earthly content- 
ment. To have the knowledge of 
God, it is necessary to recognize the 
fact that the wisdom of man is foolish- 
ness with God, and that God has 
made foolish the wisdom of this world. 
In order that Christ should be " made 
to us wisdom and righteousness, and 
sanctification and redemption," it is 
necessary that we should deny our own 



A re To u Willing P 



discretion and righteousness, and purity 
and freedom. 

The whole secret of abiding in 
Christ, and having Christ abide in us, 
is this: First, that we should be will- 
ing that all the horizon of the life 
should be bounded by Christ; that he 
should be the house out of which we 
should never choose to go; and, on the 
other hand, that we should be willing 
that he should abide in us as the per- 
manent proprietor of the mind, the 
heart and the will, casting out every- 
thing displeasing to him, and bringing 
his royal train to fill all the unoccupied 
chambers of the soul. When we see 
that Christ makes this the door to 
every experience and attainment of 
value, and when we realize that to 
pass through that door, it is necessary 
to turn away from every other path, 
we begin to perceive that which is 



20 Victory Through Sttrrender. 

called the strait gate and the narrow 
w^ay that leadeth unto life. The phil- 
osophy of this we need not understand, 
nor is it profitable to be worrying our 
minds w^ith the search after philosoph- 
ical principles that underlie the truths 
of God's revelation. Some of it, in- 
deed, we cannot help but understand, 
but whether we comprehend it or not, 
this is the vital point against which the 
adversary v^ill bring his efforts to bear, 
that we should be unwilling in the ut- 
termost to surrender, to give ourselves 
up to the Spirit and the will of Christ 
dwelling within us. If God can make 
the path plain to you, are you willing 
to walk in it? If you can see the first 
step in the life of entire consecration, 
are you willing to take it? Are you 
willing? Are you willing? 

Any further knowledge or light 



Are Ton Willing P 21 

might prove to be a curse instead of a 
blessing until you answered this simple 
question. Let it be answered now, this 
minute, saying in that entire lack of 
knowledge and of self-confidence,Avhich 
is the essence of trust and of peace, 
"Lord, I am ready ; speak, for thy 
servant heareth, and vs^hen thou hast 
spoken, I will not pause to consider 
whether I shall run or tarry, but the 
word that thou dost speak unto me, that 
will I perform." 

*'I will go where you want me to go, Lord, 

Over mountain or plain or sea; 
I will do what you want me to do, Lord, 

I will be what you want me to be." 

Do not say, "Show me thy will, and 
I will think about it" ; but make the 
surrender first instead of last, and say, 
"Lord, I have surrendered; what wilt 
thou have me to do? Show me, and 
/ will do itP And if this prayer is 



22 Victory Through Surrender. 

uttered with honest intention to do what 
may be the clearly revealed will of God, 
you may be assured that you are not 
far from the light that shineth more 
and more unto the perfect day. 



III. 

LET IT BE DEFINITE, 

THE question is frequently asked, 
as to whether a life of consecra- 
tion is an act or an experience; wheth- 
er the full development of the Chris- 
tian life is a growth or is instantaneous 
in its manifestation. The answer to 
these questions is that it is both; it is 
an experience that is caused by an act; 
it is a life which must be definitely com- 
menced and definitely lived, in order 
that God may develop in us his full 
purpose regarding our character and 
our joy. There are those v^^ho are al- 
w^ays learning and never coming to the 
knowledge of the truth; who seem to 
23 



24 Vicfo7y Through Surrender, 

be always hungering, but never filled; 
always acknowledging their weakness 
but never receiving strength; always 
fighting, but never conquering. There 
must, unquestionably, be something in- 
finitely better than this, worthy of the 
name of Christian experience. I be- 
lieve that every permanent advance- 
ment in knowledge and character is 
caused by some definite act of sur- 
render to God. This is true of the 
commencement of the Christian life, 
and it is also true concerning that life 
of faith and of the conscious presence 
and wisdom and joy and strength of 
God himself, w^hich is the desire of many, 
but the experience of few of the fol- 
lowers of the Master. 

The place into which God will lead 
us, will be a large one, w^ith which it 
will take not only time but eternity, to 
become acquainted ; but the door by 



Let It Be Dcjiiiltc, 25 

which we must enter, is a plain one, 
and consists of the definite consecration 
of all we are and have and may be- 
come. I believe that with the expe- 
rience of every Christian who knows 
what it is to abide in Christ and to 
have Christ abide in him, there has 
come a time when he definitely took 
his hands off from himself ; hence- 
forth to count himself not his own, 
but bought with a price, and to glorify 
God with his body and his spirit, 
which are God's. Do not be getting 
ready to do this. Do it. Many a 
time we may have been moved in the 
congregation by the truth of God, and 
said, " Some time I w^ill lead a con- 
secrated life," but the seed has been 
that which fell by the wayside, and 
the birds of the air have come and 
gathered it up. Sometimes in med- 
itation and reading of the Word, and 



26 Victory Throiigh Surrender, 

prayer, we have been impressed that 
the time had come to let the whole be- 
ing be utterly given up to God; but 
we have let the attention be diverted 
and the mind turned away w^hile we 
have waited for a further revelation 
which never came, and which will 
never come until the act of complete 
consecration has been definitely accom- 
plished. Let it be now. Without the 
slightest reference to any emotion or 
emotional impulse, but because it is our 
reasonable service to present the body 
a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable 
to God, let it be done now. Get alone 
with God immediately. Tell him that 
so far as you know your own heart, you 
do now consciously yield it entirely to 
him ; that you give to him all things 
that you know, and all things that you 
do not know, all that you are and 
have, and all that may come to you in 



Let It Be Dejinite. 27 

the future; that you offer yourself to 
God as a sacrifice to be passed as entire- 
ly from your control as though you 
were an offering literally slaughtered 
and offered in death upon an altar. 

And when you have done this, no 
matter whether or not there be an im- 
mediate response in the fire from heav- 
en that shall seem to consume the sac- 
rifice, count it done never to be undone, 
and never needing to be done again. 
After that, if God gives you an impulse, 
act on it. If the vision tarry, wait for 
it, but let it be distinctly settled in your 
mind once and forever that you are 
God's, and that, no matter wdiat expe- 
rience or lack of experience may come 
to you, you will never count yourself 
your own again. Let it be definite. 
Let it be done now. 

There are conditions that we cannot 
know concerning the victorious Chris- 



28 Victory TJi7^ottgh Surrender, 

tian life until w^e have definitely sur- 
rendered the will to God. It seems as 
though by this very act, God gave to 
us the clearness of eyesight regarding 
the conditions of peace and power, and 
also supplied us with the necessary 
strength and resolution in order that 
we might enter into the fulness of 
blessing. The very first thing is to 
surrender unconditionally, to give to 
God not only w^hat we know, but what 
we do not know: ignorance as well as 
knovs^ledge, and poverty as well as 
wealth, and to do it once for all; just 
as it was with Abraham when he heard 
the voice of God that called him out 
from his father's land that he might be 
a wanderer on the face of the earth, 
giving himself up entirely to the guid- 
ance and sustenance of his God. The 
place into which he was led was one of 
even completer consecration, until the 



Let It Be Dejiiiite, 29 

last thing had been surrendered; and 
God poured upon him unHmited bless- 
ings. So will it be with every soul, 
who, without question, or hesitation, or 
condition, or limitation, definitely sur 
renders the will to be forever subject 
to the will of God. The true essence 
of faith is the step that leads us to take 
the hands forever off from ourselves, 
trusting God for all consequences; and 
that act in itself will be such a de- 
termining one as to set in motion forces 
that will lead us into the place of the 
deeper knowledge of God, into a wider 
fellowship with him and into the 
stronghold of security, where the 
peace of God that passeth all under- 
standing shall keep sentry over the 
heart and mind, in Christ Jesus. Let 
the matter of entire self-surrender be 
settled once for all, and now. 



IV. 

MAKE IT COMPLETE, 

BECAUSE thou hast done this 
thing," said Jehovah unto his 
friend Abraham, " by myself I have 
sw^orn, that in blessing I w^ill bless 
thee, and in thy seed shall all the nations 
of the earth be blessed, because thou 
hast obeyed my voice." 

He had done other things. He had 
left his father's home at the call of 
God, and had become a wanderer, not 
know^ing w^hither he w^ent, sojourning 
in the land of promise as in a strange 
country, dwelling in tents with his son 
Isaac, and ready to sacrifice all things 
at the word of his Master; but through 
30 



Make It Complete, 31 

all his life until this hour, the experi- 
ences and consecration of the past were 
only preparing him for the supreme 
test of the offering up of his son. 

There is an influence about any sort 
of honest consecration to God that 
leads by an inexorable law to the 
necessity of a further consecration; un- 
til there are suggested to us undreamed 
of possibilities in the things that may 
be surrendered at the call of God. To 
consecrate one thing is to hear the call 
to the consecration of other things, un- 
til at last it may be possible for one to so 
surrender the last thing as to hear the 
word that shall say, " Because thou hast 
done this thing, I will bless thee and 
make thee a blessing." 

There were people round about this 
dweller in tents, who were idolaters, 
and whose custom it was to offer up 
their children unto idols; and when 



32 Victory Through Surrender, 

once the suggestion had come into the 
mind of Abraham that he might be 
unwiUing to do for his God what the 
people about him seemed to be eager 
to do for the sake of their false wor- 
ship, there could be no rest for him un- 
til the knife had been sharpened and 
laid at the throat of this son who was 
the child of promise. It seemed as 
though by his obedience it would be 
necessary for him to make God disloyal 
to his own word, for he had said, " In 
Isaac shall thy seed be called;" and 
now it seemed to the father as if the 
word of God was to be made of none 
effect by the sacrifice of this son. But 
this was a man who in the name of 
God had learned to count the things 
that are not as those that are, and he 
believed God, accounting that it was 
possible for God to raise him up even 
from the dead, from whence also he re- 



Alakc It Complete, 33 

ceived him, in a figure. "He staggered 
not at the promise of God through un- 
belief, but was strong in faith, giving 
glory to God, and being fully persuaded 
that what he had promised he was able 
to perform, and therefore it was im- 
puted to him for righteousness." 

When God was endeavoring to 
soften the heart of Pharaoh in order 
that he might allow the Children of 
Israel to go on a three days' journey to 
sacrifice in the wilderness, there were 
various propositions looking toward 
their release that were made by the 
Egyptian king. One of the first sug- 
gestions that he made was when he 
said to Moses and Aaron, " Go ye, and 
sacrifice to your God in the land ;" the 
second suggestion was, " I will let you 
go, that you may sacrifice to the Lord 
your God in the wilderness, only you 
shall not go very far away;" the third 



34 Victory Through Surrender, 

proposition Avas, that the men should 
go, but that the women and children 
should be left behind. And finally, 
when he found that none of these 
things were availing, he said, " Go ye, 
and serve the Lord, only let your flocks 
and your herds be stayed." But Moses 
answered, " Thou must give us also 
sacrifices and burnt offerings, that w^e 
may sacrifice unto the Lord our God. 
Our cattle also shall go with us. There 
shall not a hoof be left behind ; for ev- 
erything must we take to serve the 
Lord our God, and w^e know^ not with 
what we must serve the Lord until we 
come thither." 

It is not possible for one w^ho is en- 
tering upon a life of entire consecra- 
tion, to reserve a known or an unknow^n 
thing from dedication unto God. If 
the devil can cause the people to sac- 
rifice to God in the land, or not to go 



Make It Complete, 35 

far away, or to leave anything in con- 
nection with their families or earthly 
relationships, or to reserve any thing of 
material value from entire surrender to 
God, he always gains the victory. 
The fact is, that vv^hen one wills to fol- 
low God fully, he is not able to make 
any sort of reservation, expressed or 
implied; for he does not know with 
w^hat he must serve the Lord until he 
gets into the place where God can re- 
veal the secrets of his counsel unto 
him. 

It was so again with the Israelites 
when they entered into the land of 
Canaan. The walls of Jericho had 
fallen down flat, and yet they were 
overcome w^hen the army marched 
against the little city of Ai because of 
the lack of obedience of one of the 
members of the host. 

After this, when they had again 



36 victory Through Surrejzder, 

sought God's favor by the taking away 
of the evil thing and the punishment 
of the offender, there came to Joshua 
men from Gibeon, vs^ho heard w^hat he 
had done unto Jericho and unto Ai, 
w^ho did w^ork v^iHly and w^ent to make 
as if they had been ambassadors, and 
put old sacks upon their horses, and 
wine bottles old and rent, and bound 
up, and old shoes clouted upon their 
feet, and old garments upon them, and 
all the bread of their provision was 
dirty and mouldy, and they went to 
Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and 
said unto him and the men of Israel, 
"We be come from a far country. 
Now, therefore, make ye a league with 
us." And the men of Israel fell into 
the trap, and made a league with the 
inhabitants of Gibeon to let them live. 
And the princes of the congregation 
swore unto tbem, and it came to pass 



Make It Complete, 37 

at the end of three days after they had 
made a league with them, that they 
heard that they were their neighbors, 
and that they dwelt among them. And 
then it was, seeing that they had fallen 
into a trap, they arranged with the peo- 
ple of Gibeon to be to them hewers of 
wood and drawers of water, instead of 
executing upon these opponents of 
God the judgment which had been 
long ago pronounced, and had been 
waiting for execution. And God told 
the people that because their leaders 
had made this compact, instead of ful- 
filling his law against the idolaters; 
that, so long as they abode in the land 
of promise, so long should there abide 
by their side the people who should 
lead them into continual temptation, 
and should be snares and traps unto 
them, and scourges in their sides and 
thorns in their eyes, until the peo- 



38 victory Through Surrender, 

pie of Israel should perish from off the 
good land which the Lord their God 
had given them. 

All the sad history of the doubting 
and vacillation and defeat, all the go- 
ing aw^ay into idolatry, all the w^eak- 
ness in the time of battle, and the de- 
feat in the presence of the foes of God, 
all the sad and bitter experiences that 
finally culminated in the Babylonish 
captivity, w^ere due to the fact that w^ith 
the Gibeonites and some other idolaters 
of the land of Canaan the people made a 
compact, instead of utterly destroying 
them at the first. 

Saul had a similar experience in con- 
nection w^ith the campaign against 
Agag, w^hom he w^as commanded to 
utterly destroy, with " all that he had, 
men and women and infants and suck- 
ling kids and sheep, camels and asses." 
But " Saul and the people spared Agag 



Make It Complete. 39 

and the best of the sheep and of the 
oxen and of the fatlings and of the 
lambs," under the pretext that they 
needed to have material to sacrifice un- 
to the Lord ; and Samuel said, " Hath 
the Lord as great delight in burnt of- 
ferings and sacrifices as in obeying the 
voice of the Lord: behold, to obey is 
better than sacrifice and to hearken 
than the fat of rams; for rebellion is as 
the sign of witchcraft, and stubborn- 
ness is as iniquity and idolatry. Be- 
cause thou hast rejected the word of 
the Lord, he hath also rejected thee 
from being king." 

The trouble with the young man 
whom Jesus loved, w^as, that he lacked 
one thing in the surrender of his will 
to God, and when the test came by 
v^hich he might show that every- 
thing had been surrendered, he w^as 
not ready to meet it. We need to give 



40 Victory Through Surrender, 

up all we know and have, and all we 
may know or be or have. This only 
is faith, and this is the faith that work- 
eth unto righteousness. 

On his twenty-first birth-day, Jona- 
than Edwards w^rote in his diary, "I 
Avill make the salvation of my soul my 
life work." Later he said, "If I be- 
lieved that it were permitted to one 
man — and to only one — in this gen- 
eration, to lead a life of complete con- 
secration to God, I would live in every 
respect as though I believed myself to 
be that one." 

There is a story told about a monk 
who w^as disobedient to the law of the 
superior of the monastery, and was 
taken out to be buried alive. He was 
placed standing in the grave, and the 
earth was filled in so that he could not 
move his feet. The superior asked 
him, "Are you dead yet ? " and he 



Make It Complete. 41 

said, "Xo." The earth was then filled 
in, until it rose up on his chest, and it 
was difficult for him to breathe, and 
w^hen the question was repeated, he 
said,"No, I will not die." The earth 
was then filled in until it was almost 
impossible for the man to speak, and a 
few more shovelfuls of earth would 
have smothered him, and he said, " I 
give up. I will die." 

I would it might be that every 
reader of these words should be ready 
to pray the simple words of this 
hymn : 

God, mj heart doth sigh for Thee; 
Let me die, let me die. 

Now set my soul at liberty: 

Let me die, let me die 
To all the trifling things of earth, 
They're now to me of little worth. 
My Savior calls, I'm going forth ; 

Let me die, let me die. 

Oh, I must die to scoffs and jeers; 
Let me die, let me die. 

1 must be dead to slavish fears; 
Let me die, let me die. 



42 V^ictory Through Su7'7'ender, 



To all the world and its applause, 
To all the customs, fashions, laws, 
Of those who hate the humbling cross, 
Let me die, let me die. 

If Christ would live and reign in me, 

I must die, 1 must die. 
Like him I crucified must be, 

I must die, I must die. 
So dead that no desire may rise 
To pass for good, or great, or wise, 
In any but my Savior's eyes. 

Let me die, let me die. 

Begin at once to drive the nail ; 

Let me die, let me die. 
Oh, suffer not my heart to fail; 

Let me die, let me die. 
My God, I look to Thee for power 
To help me to endure the hour. 
When crucified by Sovereign power 

I shall die, I shall die. 

When I am dead, then Lord to Thee 

I shall live, I shall live. 
My time, my strength, my all to Thee, 

I do give, I do give. 
Nothing for self shall henceforth be. 
Dear Lord, I've given myself to Thee, 
For time and for eternity, 

I shall live, I shall live. 



V. 

COUNT IT DONE. 

NOT long ago, in an inquiry meet- 
ing, a pastor said that " Some 
folks think that one way to become a 
Christian is to commence to act as though 
you were already a Christian." The lead- 
er of the meeting said, "That is the only 
way," and I am sure that I agree with 
him. The only principle upon which 
prayer is eyer answered, is that enun- 
ciated by the Master when he said: 
" Whatsoeyer things ye desire when 
ye pray, belieye that ye haye receiyed 
them, and je shall haye them." 

When a man takes some definite 
promise of Christ, such, for instance, 

43 



44 Victory Through Surrender, 

as the wonderful words, "Him that 
Cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast 
out," and says for himself, "I have 
come to him the best I know, and I 
believe his word, he has not cast me 
out," he is fairly in the kingdom of 
God. Or, if he takes the words, "Be- 
hold, I stand at the door and knock ; if 
any man hear my voice and open the 
door, I will come in to him and will 
sup with him and he wnth me," and 
says concerning it, "I know that I have 
opened the door, and I believe his 
word; he has come in, and he is now 
within me," Christ will make real for 
him that w^hich he receives by faith 
We need continually to keep in mind 
the fact that the principles that govern 
the entrance into the Christian life are 
the same principles that govern every 
advanced step, and the develop- 
ment of the life of God in man. The 



Count It Done, 45 

Savior said to the ten lepers, "Go, 
show yourselves to the priests," and 
w^hile they were still covered with lep- 
rosy, they turned to go to the priests. 
There was for them no indication that 
they had been healed, save the impli- 
cation contained in the words that bade 
them be examined by the health offi- 
cer. "And it came to pass that, as they 
went^ they were cleansed." The com- 
mand given to the man with the with- 
ered hand was, "Stretch forth thine 
hand." This was the thing that he 
had been wanting to do for years and 
had been unable to accomplish. If he 
had been possessed by any spirit of 
unbelief, he would have hesitated to 
make the effort; but as he made the 
effort, the power to do what God told 
him, came, "And he stretched forth his 
hand, and it was restored whole like 
unto the other." 



46 Victory Through Surrendei\ 

When the IsraeUtes had come to the 
borders of the river Jordan, on then- 
second approach to tlie boundary of the 
promised land, as they advanced into 
the w^ater, the waters w^ere rolled 
back, and they passed over upon dry 
ground. And when they came to one 
of the great walled cities which had 
frightened the timorous spies forty 
years before, they were told to march 
round about it once every day for seven 
days, and on the seventh day seven 
times, and then, at the signal given by 
the rams' horns of the priests, they 
were to shout. If there had been a 
spirit in them that said, " For what 
shall we shout? " they would have been 
overcome by their enemies. But as 
the shout of victory went up w^hen as 
3^et there was no victory in sight, God 
made real for his people that which 
they had received by faith, and the 



Count It Done. 47 

walls fell down flat; and, so far as the 
jDeople of Israel were concerned, they 
gained a bloodless victory. 

There never was, and there never 
will be any way to walk in the light 
of God other than by faith. In fact, 
the thing that God offers to us is his 
own faith, the principle by which he 
lives, and the knowledge that what he 
says shall be accomplished. The ex- 
act expression that the Master used in 
speaking to his disciples, as the word 
is recorded in the eleventh chapter of 
Mark, is not as the King James ver- 
sion puts it, "Have faith in God," but 
rather as the margin records it, "Have 
the faith of God." What Paul said to 
the Galatians concerning the principle of 
the life that he lived with Christ ^vas, 
that the life which he now lived in the 
flesh, he lived by "the faith of the Son 
of God." The gift which God makes 



48 Victory Through Surrender. 

to us in giving us faith, is that sublime 
confidence which enables us to count 
the things that are not as those that 
are, and thus the faith is reckoned 
unto us for righteousness. When 
the Lord Jesus uttered a command, or 
worked a miracle, he had no question 
in his mind but that what he said 
would be perfectly accomplished; and 
just so far as we grow to be like 
him, and have no will but the will of 
God, abiding in Christ and having 
Christ abide in us, do we have the same 
sublimity of faith, and w^e shall ask 
what we will, and it shall be done unto 
us. 

We need to make the words in the 
sixth chapter of Romans exceedingly 
practical, where Paul says, ^'Likewise 
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead 
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let 



Count It Done, 49 

not sin therefore reign in jour mortal 
body, that ye should obey it in the lusts 
thereof. Neither yield ye your mem- 
bers as instruments of unrighteousness 
unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God, 
as those that are alive from the dead, 
and your members as instruments of 

righteousness unto God Know 

ye not that to whom ye yield your- 
selves servants to obey, his servants ye 
are to whom ye obey; whether of sin 
unto death, or of obedience unto right- 
eousness? . . . For as ye have yielded 
your members servants to uncleanness 
and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so 
now yield your members servants to 
righteousness unto holiness. For when 
ye were the servants of sin, ye were 
free from rio^hteousness. . . . But now 
being made free from sin, and become 
servants to God, ye have your fruit 
unto holiness, and the end everlasting 



5o Victory 71i7^otigh Surrender, 

life. For the wages of sin is death, 
but the gift of God is eternal life 
through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

I would to God that we might see 
that when we present ourselves to God 
as if we were alive from the dead, 
that God does indeed make us alive 
from the dead, and that no practical 
faith was ever manifested toward him 
in vain. As a friend of mine said, in 
turning his back forever upon having 
any confidence in the flesh, and utterly 
surrendering himself to God, "I felt as 
though I walked out to the end of the 
ridge pole in the darkness, and jumped 
off, and Jesus caught me." 

Having made the surrender definite, 
and by the revelation of God having 
made it complete, let it be fully settled 
in your own mind that you have done 
this once for all; that you have fully 
accepted God to be all things unto you. 



Count It Done, 51 

and that God has accepted you that in 
this way he may perfectly fulfill your 
wish, and, though all the devils in hell 
and all the faithless and half-conse- 
crated people upon earth should try to 
shake your confidence, set to your sea. 
in this that God is true, and reckon 
yourself to be "dead indeed unto sin. 
and alive unto God through our Lore 
Jesus Christ." 

"I see a door, a multitude near by. 
In creed and quarrel, sure disciples all! 
Gladly thev would, they saj, enter the hail, 
But cannot, the stone threshold is so high. 
From unseen hand, full many a feeding 

crumb, 
Slow dropping o'er the threshold high, 

doth come; 
They gather and eat, with much disputing 

hum. 

"Still and anon a loud, clear voice doth call; 
'Make your feet clean, and enter so the hall!' 
They hear, thej stoop, they gather each a 

crumb. 
Oh, the deaf people! would they were also 

dumb! 



52 Victory Through Surrender, 



Hear how they talk! and lack of Christ de- 
plore, 
Stamping with muddy feet about the door, 
And will not make them clean to walk upon 
his floor. 

"But see, one comes ; he listens to the Voice ; 
Careful he wipes his weary, dusty feet! 
The Voice has spoken to him is left no 

choice; 
He hurries to obey, that only is meet. 
Low sinks the threshold, leveled with the 

ground ; 
This man leaps in, to liberty he's bound. 
The rest go talking, walking, picking round." 



VI. 
THE TRTING OF TOUR FAITH, 

NOTHING is stronger than its 
weakest part. No man has more 
faitii than he has in the time of the se- 
verest testing. No man even know^s 
whether he has faith or not, until he is 
tested, but in a time of testing he does 
know^ it, and knows it with a con- 
fidence that puts to flight all his ene- 
mies, and gives him the joy and satis- 
faction and courage of one who has 
been a conqueror, and who knows that 
in the days to come he still shall con- 
quer. James says to us: "My breth- 
ren, count it all joy w^hen ye fall into 
divers testings, knowing this: that the 
33 



54 Victory Through Surrender, 

trying of your faith worketh patience. 
But let patience have her perfect work, 
that ye may be perfect and entire, want- 
ing nothing." Paul says: "We glory 
in tribulations also, knowing that trib- 
ulation worketh patience, and patience, 
experience; and experience, hope; and 
hope maketh not ashamed, because the 
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts 
by the Holy Ghost which is given unto 
us." The Savior said: "Blessed are 
they which are persecuted for right- 
eousness' sake; for theirs is the king- 
dom of heaven. Blessed are ye when 
men shall revile you and persecute you, 
and shall say all manner of evil against 
you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and 
be exceeding glad: for great is your 
reward in heaven : for so persecuted 
they the prophets which were before 
you." 

The great apostle said of his own ex- 



The Trymg of Toicr Paith, 55 

perience: "I take pleasure in infirmi- 
ties, in reproaches, in necessities, in 
persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's 
sake, for when I am weak, then am I 
strong." Peter said: "If ye suffer 
for righteousness' sake, happy are ye." 
The Word also says: "Blessed is the 
man who endureth temptation, for 
when he is tried, he shall receive a 
crown of life, which the Lord hath 
promised to them that love him." 

The terrible power of the adversary 
is manifested in making men satisfied 
with second best things, and while the 
Christian is continually kept in perfect 
peace, he may be also assured that the 
way that he shall gain the cause and 
guaranty of peace shall be through the 
testing of his faith. No man ever left 
aught for the kingdom of God's sake, 
but he received a hundredfold in this 
present time. But, on the other hand, no 



56 Victory Through Surrender, 

man ever stepped out in the Spirit of 
Christ, saying: "Lo, I come to do thy 
will, O my God," but he was "led up 
of the Spirit into the wilderness to be 
tempted of the devil." It is indeed 
very significant that after those days 
of testing we read that " Jesus returned 
in the power of the Spirit unto Gali- 
lee," which is the first expression of a 
similar import that we find in the gos- 
pel record. In his experience in the 
desert with the adversary he was 
"tempted in all points like as we are, 
and yet without sin" and he was also 
passing through the experience which 
fitted him for the Garden of Gethsem- 
ane and the hour of darkness and the 
evil time when it seemed to him as 
though his God had forsaken him. 

Men may have opinions concerning 
certain truths of the Word of God, be- 
lieving that they are the truth, but a 



The Tryi)ig of your Faith, 57 

man never knows the truth in such a 
way that it makes him entirely free 
until he has been tested to the last 
limit of his confidence, and has realized 
in the mighty strength and power of 
God that he can always be led forth to 
triumph in the Lord Jesus. 

It is a great fact that when a man 
stretches himself on the altar, God 
binds him fast, and when he lays him- 
self willingly on the cross, God sees to 
it that the nails are driven, and that the 
sufferer remains there until the death 
has come that makes possible the glo- 
rious resurrection. 

It is not a hard thing to fight, so 
long as we may gain the victory, and 
the victory is already partly gained 
when we are anticipating the attack of 
a foe and are thoroughly prepared with 
the armor of God against him. It is a 
tremendous warning that says that 



58 Victory Through Surrender, 

" we wrestle not against flesh and 
blood, but against principalities, against 
powers, against the rulers of the dark- 
ness of this world, against wicked 
spirits in heavenly places." It is in- 
deed true that the nearer we come in 
our lives to God, that the more subtle 
and deadly are the emissaries of evil 
that are sent against us, so that the very 
shrewdest of all the devils in hell are 
the wicked spirits that attack those who 
would live in heavenly places. But it 
is also true that there is a way of con- 
tinual victory, as in that same passage 
the writer says: " Ye may be able to 
stand against the wiles of the devil." 
. . . ''Ye may be able to with- 
stand in the evil day, and having done 
all to stand." ..." Ye shall be 
able to quench all the fiery darts of the 
wicked." The armor which he so 
graphically and particularly described 



The Trying of Tour Faith, 59 

• 

is all of it summed up in a word in an- 
other place where he says: "Put ye 
on the Lord Jesus Christ," for Christ 
is called the truth, and our righteous- 
ness, and our peace, and our faith, and 
our salvation, and just so far as we have 
appropriated him v^ill he in the hour 
of testing: make himself all these thinos 
to us; girdle, and breastplate, and san- 
dals, and shield, and helmet, and the 
sword of the Spirit, which is the Word 
of God. 

When the Romans landed on the 
coast of Britain there came swarming 
to meet them tens of thousands of the 
savage natives of the country, and as 
the primitive people gathered along 
their w^hite cliffs and looked down up- 
on this strange foe, they uttered howls 
of rage, and seemed to be about to cast 
themselves down and exterminate the 
invaders. It was then that the Romans, 



6o Victory Thi'oiigh Surre7ide7\ 

4 

offering sacrifice to their gods and look- 
ing for one moment out across the sea 
toward far distant Rome which they 
might never see again, instead of pre- 
paring their ships for flight, that thus 
in case of the defeat which seemed to 
be almost a certainty, they might flee 
in safety, lighted each man a torch and 
set fire to the vessels w4iich would have 
been their only hojoe of escape in case 
of disaster. And as the savages along 
the cliffs, many times in number the 
invaders, looked down upon that he- 
roic act, they were struck with a fear 
that caused a panic to come upon them, 
and they fled before the heroic band 
who had counted the cost and squarely 
met the issue in the time of testing, as 
the dry leaves are whirled along by 
the tempestuous wind. 

God said to the shrinking Jeremiah : 
" Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I 



The Trying of 7 our Faith, 6\ 

confound thee before them, for behold 
I have made thee this day a defenced 
city, and an iron pillar and brazen 
walls against the whole land, against 
the kings of Judah, against the princes 
thereof, against the priests thereof, and 
against the people of the land. And 
they shall fight against thee, but they 
shall not prevail against thee, for I am 
with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver 
thee." 

The sound by w^hich a man says " I 
do now belong to God," is a challenge 
to the enemy to do his worst, and the 
doing of the w^orst by the adversary 
and the consequent victory that comes 
to the child of God who has no confi- 
dence in the flesh, is the means by 
vs^hich his eyesight is cleared, his 
strength increased, his faith developed, 
and he is led in the confidence of tri- 
umph from victory unto victory. 



VII. 

WAITING UPON GOD. 

''^^/"E have need of patience, that, 
X after ye have done the w411 of 
God, ye might receive the promise." 
" Let patience have her perfect work, 
that ye may be perfect and entire, 
v^^anting nothing." " Tribulation vs^ork- 
eth patience; and patience, experience; 
and experience, hope ; and iiope maketh 
not ashamed; because the love of God 
is shed abroad in our hearts by his 
Spirit w^hich he hath given unto us." 
After the trying of our faith comes 
patience. This is a great word, which 
implies in its meaning not simply to be 
uncomplaining in the time of testing, 
62 



Waitmg Upon God. 63 

but rather everything that comes be- 
tween the commencement of a Chris- 
tian Hfe and the final victory w^hen we 
shall hear the word of commendation 
for those who, by patient continuance 
in well-doing, have been seeking for 
glory, and honor and immortality. 

No one has ever learned the secret 
of the Most High, who has not known 
what it means to rest in the Lord and 
wait patiently for him. We are told 
that "those who wait upon the Lord 
shall inherit the earth ; " and that " it is 
good that a man should both hope and 
quietly wait for the salvation of the 
Lord." We read that " they that wait 
upon the Lord shall renew their 
strength; they shall mount up with 
wings as eagles; they shall run and not 
be weary, and they shall walk and not 
faint;" and the counsel of God upon 
this subject may be summed up in 



64 victory Through Surrender, 

the words: "Wait on the Lord; be 
of good courage, and he shall strength- 
en thine heart; wait, I say, on the 
Lord." 

After the garden, and the cross, and 
the resurrection, and just before his 
ascension to be with his Father, Christ 
bade his disciples " not to depart from 
Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise 
of the Father, which, saith he, ye have 
heard of me." This waiting upon God 
is anything except the occupation of 
the idler. First of all, it furnishes for 
God the necessary element of time in 
the perfecting of our characters. Al- 
though God is tremendously in earn- 
est, he is never in a hurry, and for 
ages he had been working in the world 
before the fulness of the time in 
which he might send forth his only-be- 
gotten Son; and even after all these 
centuries of God's planning and work- 



Waiting Upon God, 65 

ing, "we know the whole creation 
groaneth and travaileth in pain together 
until now; and not only they but our- 
selves also, which have the first fruits 
of the Spirit, even w^e ourselves groan 
within ourselves, waiting for the adop- 
tion, to vs^it, the redemption of our 
body. For we are saved by hope; but 
hope that is seen is not hope; for what 
a man seeth, vs^hy doth he yet hope 
for? But if we hope for that we see 
not, then do we with patience wait for 
it." " For the earnest expectation of 
the creature waiteth for the manifesta- 
tion of the sons of God." // takes time 
to make meji and women. I believe that 
the secret of Paul's counting himself 
perfect, and ahnost with the same 
breath announcing that he does not 
count himself yet to have attained 
perfection, lies in the fact that we may 
be perfect children, while we are not 



66 Victory Through Surrender, 

as yet men and women, but are grow- 
ing day by day into " the measure of 
the stature of the fuhiess of Christ." 
So far from doing nothing, this is 
the time of real working, and the 
growth and the development of fruit. 
" The husbandman waiteth for the 
precious fruit of the earth, and hath 
long patience for it, until he receive 
the early and the latter rain." We 
know that the time of waiting on his 
part is by no means a time of inaction, 
but of careful watching and tilling and 
helping in the processes that shall bring 
into perfection the fruit of all his 
thought and toil. We must not think 
God inactive or indifferent concerning 
us because we do not see every hour 
some new fruit of his toil in us. Con- 
cerning those with whom the good 
seed was sown that was to spring up 



Walt ill or Upon God, 67 

and bring forth fruit an hundred fold, 
we read the significant words, these are 
they that " bring forth fruit with pa- 
tience." " So is the kingdom of God, 
as if a man should cast seed into the 
ground; and should sleep and rise 
night and day, and the seed should 
spring and grow up, he knoweth not 
how. For the earth bringeth forth 
fruit of herself ; first the blade, then the 
ear, after that the full corn in the ear." 
Again, the place of waiting is a 
place of absolute humility. The Psalm- 
ist says: " Truly, my soul waiteth 
upon God;" and as we look into the 
margin, we find that the Hebrew ex- 
pression is, " My soul is silent unto 
God." There are things that God can- 
not tell except with the still, small 
voice, and that we cannot hear except 
when ^ve are in the place of absolute 
silence and freedom from all human 



68 Victory Through Sti7'rende7\ 

questioning, and thinking, and wish- 
ing, and striving. 

Still further, this is the place of ex- 
clusive dependence upon God. No 
more pertinent exhortation could be 
voiced than this : " My soul, w^ait thou 
only upon God, for my expectation 
is from him." The secret of the Lord 
which is with them that fear him, so 
far as it can be revealed in words, I 
think is this; that God is satisfied not 
with our simply being dependent upon 
him, but with our being independent 
of everything else. " Wait thou only 
upon God." There were things which 
God could do in his struggling with 
Jacob, but there was one thing which 
he could not do, and that was what 
Jacob did when, realizing that all his 
scheming had been in vain, and that 
now he could not even run from the 
vengeance of his brother Esau, and 



Waiting Upon God, 69 

hanging as a poor, weak cripple upon 
God, he cried out: "I will not let thee 
go, except thou bless me." There 
were things that Elisha could do for the 
woman who was in such dire distress; 
but this woman had to be shut up alone 
with God before the increase of the oil 
might come, and her debt might be 
paid, and she and her children have 
provision for all their need; and any 
soul that is longing to deny himself, 
and to count the things that are not as 
those that are, who will lay hold upon 
God in that spirit which will know 
nothing unless God teaches it, and have 
nothing unless God gives it, and be 
nothing except by the birth and life, 
and strength and development of God, 
unto him w^ill be revealed all the riches 
of the knowledge of God and the 
boundless love of his only-begotten 
Son. 



7o Victory Through Surrende7\ 

In the fourth place, this waiting up- 
on God is an act of exceeding great in- 
tensity and persistence. It is not 
enough to have a spasm of entering 
into the closet for an interview with 
God; but to have so turned away from 
other things that we shall wait for him 
more than the w^atchers wait for the 
morning. David says, " On thee do I 
wait all the day," and there is no more 
intense occupation than that of such 
waiting. Elijah heard the sound of 
abundance of rain in his heart before 
he saw the cloud the size of a man's 
hand in the sky ; and even after he was 
certain that the rain was coming, and 
had risked his life upon the prediction 
of its near approach, still did he bow 
his head down between his knees and 
wait before God until the shower v^as 
at hand. He knew that the rain was 
there, and he knew that it was in the 



Waiting Upon God. 



power of his intense waiting before 
God to bring it; and I believe that un- 
less the rain had come, that Elijah 
would have died in that place of self- 
denying faith, bowed down before 
God and claiming his promise. We 
read of the unjust judge who, because 
of the continual coming of the woman, 
gave to her her desire, and of the man 
who rose to give unto his friend be- 
caus-e of his importunity; and immedi- 
ately in connection with this latter in- 
cident we find the words : " Ask, and 
it shall be given you; seek, and ye 
shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened 
unto you. For every one that asketh 
receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; 
and to him that knocketh it shall be 
opened." 

Ages ago the prophet said: "If the 
vision tarry, wait for it," and so for 
those of us who have been led, step by 



72 Victory Through Surrender. 

step, until the last thing has been laid 
upon God's altar, and the faith has 
been tested by the attacks of the ad- 
versary, and we have gained confidence 
by the fact that w^e have not been over- 
come, for us there is the place of silence 
before God, and of that patient v^^ait- 
ing in w^hich he may fulfill his w^ill, 
and see in us the travail of his soul and 
be satisfied. 



VIII. 

VICTORY 

AN unknown benefactor has sent 
me the right message for this 
place. It is this: "You need not 
count your resources ; they are Hmitless. 
You need not measvn*e your strength; 
it is measureless. You need not cal- 
culate difficulties; is anything too hard 
for the Lord? You need not tremble 
for results; God's results are all suc- 
cesses. He stands with you beside a 
dead world and promises its resurrec- 
tion." 

There is the definite statement in the 
Word of God, that when patience has 
perfected her work, the man of God 

73 



74 Victory Tlwough Sui'rejider, 

shall be complete, shall " be perfect and 
entire, wanting nothing." There is 
also the statement which we have be- 
fore quoted, that " tribulation worketh 
patience; and patience, experience; and 
experience, hope; and hope maketh not 
ashamed, because the love of God is 
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy 
Ghost which is given unto us." 

The life of a man who has passed 
through such a process as this, and is be- 
ing continually developed by the Spirit 
of God, is a life of continual victory over 
ignorance and perplexity. Sometimes 
a man says that he is thoroughly con- 
secrated unto God, and then asks this 
question : " How is it that you are able 
to tell what God's Avill is concerning 
you ? " and " how do you make a choice 
between good things, as to which one 
is the best thing?" The asking of 
this question is an indication either 



victory, 75 

that the man has not surrendered him- 
self fully unto the Sphnt of God, or else 
that he has not realized the fulness of 
his inheritance in the appropriation 
of the wisdom of God. The statement 
is very distinct, that '' Christ is made 
unto us wisdom," and the prayer of 
Paul, which was quoted in the first 
article of this series, was, " that the 
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the 
Father of glory, might give unto the 
Ephesians the spirit of wisdom and 
revelation in the knowledge of him." 
Even under the Old Dispensation, one 
of the sjDirit-enlightened saints had re- 
ceived this truth, and tells it in words 
that could not be surpassed in any age, 
when he says: "Trust in the Lord 
with all thine heart and lean not unto 
thine own understanding; in all thy 
ways acknowledge him and he shall 
direct thy paths." 



76 Victory Through Surrender, 

A friend of mine says: "People 
sometimes lean to their own under- 
standing when they do not rest upon 
it;" and in order to have the Lord's 
wisdom, and to know continually that 
we are working according to his coun- 
sel, we have but to be in the place of 
perpetual self-denial and acknowledge- 
ment of his guidance. Sometimes, in- 
deed, when we have not known for 
ourselves by any definite indication that 
we were being led of God, our eyes 
are afterward opened to see that the 
Lord was fulfillmg his promises, and 
was causing us to walk in his statutes 
and his judgments and in the way that 
we should go. 

The life of abiding in Christ is a life 
of victory over sin and selfishness. 
God always administers his own prop- 
erty. He may not seem to be interested 
in another's estate; but just so far 



Victoiy, 77 

and just so fast as thought and imag- 
ination are brought into captivity unto 
Christ, does the Lord possess the 
thoughts and the imaginations and the 
words and the deeds, and work in them 
and through them for his own glory. 
The reason that he does not keep some 
hves in the condition of continual 
cleansing is that he does not have the 
opportunity. He cultivates only the 
fields that belong to him, by the defi- 
nite relinquishment of the former own- 
er; but these fields he always does cul- 
tivate, and while a man may not have 
attained his perfect growth in an in- 
stant, he may be sure of this, that God 
will keep him in a place where, mo- 
ment by moment, he will cleanse away 
his sin, and will protect him even 
from the approach of sin, even as 
someone has beautifully said, " the con- 



78 Victoiy Through Surrender. 



tinual action of the eye-lid protects the 
eye." 

Again, the Hfe of self -surrender and 
appropriation of God is a complete 
victory over fear and unrest. God 
never uses meaningless words, and 
to the fullest does he fulfill his 
promise, " Thou will keep him in per- 
fect peace whose mind is stayed on 
thee, because hetrusteth in thee." One 
of the sins that it seems hardest for 
God to forgive and eradicate, is the 
fatal sin of anxiety; but when one has 
no ambition but God's ambition, and 
no will but the will of God, he may 
dwell in a perfect calm which the 
world cannot give nor take away. 
When we are anxious for nothing, but 
" in everything by prayer and suppli- 
cation with thanksgiving, are letting 
our requests be known unto God, the 
peace of God which passeth all under- 



Victory. 79 

standing keeps our hearts and minds 
through Christ Jesus." The word 
" keep " is a beautiful expression that 
refers to the action of the Roman sen- 
try, so that the peace of God not only 
abides in our hearts, but on the outside 
stands as a sentry to ward off attacks 
which might prove to be disturbers of 
our perfect rest. 

Still further, the life of the complete 
trustnig of one's self to God, is a vic- 
tory over weakness and vacillation. In 
all the ages, there has gone up the cry 
that came from the broken heart of the 
king who had terribly sinned against 
light and opportunity: "Renew aright 
spirit within me." This word " right " 
means constant, and it is for the guar- 
anty of constancy that some have been 
continually lookmg. This, too, is a 
result of the life of self-surrender and 
of waiting upon God. After Hosea 



So Victory Through Surrender, 

had portrayed the attitude of the peo- 
ple that desired to forsake all their sins 
ill their return unto God, he promises 
unto the people who have thus yielded 
themselves to him, forgiveness and life 
and restoration and refreshment and 
delicacv and strength and growth and 
beauty, and then he adds, " Ephraim 
shall say, ' What have I to do any more 
with idols?'" The great blessing of 
constancy is for the man who is able to 
say, " My heart is fixed, O God, my 
heart is fixed." 

And finally, this is the place where 
we realize the enduement of j^ower, 
concerning which Christ bade his dis- 
ciples to tarry at Jerusalem until they 
had been endued with the power from 
on high, and concerning which he said 
to the seventy disciples when he sent 
them out, " Behold I give you power 
over all the power of the enemy." 



Victory, 8 1 

When we have realized that God has 
chosen the weak things, and the fooUsh 
things, and the base and despised 
things, and the non-existent things, and 
that to accompHsh his purposes he is 
looking for the man that has made 
himself of no reputation, then indeed 
do we realize that '^ the eyes of the 
Lord run to and fro throughout the 
whole earth, to show himself strong in 
behalf of them whose heart is perfect 
toward him." To-day I believe all 
the infinite life of God, in purity, and 
wisdom, and peace, and strength, and 
power, is waiting for the one who is 
willing to receive it. 

Christ says to us as he said to 
the father of the demoniac lad, '' If 
thou ca7tst^ all things are possible to 
him that believeth." He said to 
Martha, "If thou wouldest believe, 
thou shouldest see the glory of God," 



S2 I'^ictory Through Surrender, 

and to us to-day he says the same, 
for the surrender to him and the 
victory of God within our souls, is 
the measure of our faith. So shall we 
find this fact made true within us and 
through us, that they that " wait upon 
the Lord shall change their strength, 
they shall mount up with wings as 
eagles, they shall run and not be weary, 
and they shall walk and not faint; "and 
so shall it be that we shall pass from 
strength to strength, from grace to 
grace, from victory to victory, and 
" come at last to the end of life and the 
beginning of life, and pass from glory 
unto glory." 



^'Few books of recent years are better adapted to in- 
struct and help Christians than those of this author. 
He is a man mighty in the Scriptures.' — D. L. Moody. 



WRITINGS O F REV. F. B. MEYER. 

We have learned to take up with eagerness whatever 
bears the name of this author. — Standard. 

Eminently the offering of a heart full of the love of God. 
— Magazine of Christian Literature. 

He will point out to many a reader unsuspected truth 
and beauty in the Scriptures.— Tlt^afcTima?*. 

The Life and Light of Men ^i oo 

Tried by Fire. Expositions of ist Peter, i oo 

Moses: The Max of God i oo 

Israel: A Prince with God i oo 

Abraham; OR, The Obedience of Faith, i oo 
Elijah, and the Secret of His Power, i oo 

The Shepherd Psalm 50 

Christian Living 50 

Present Tenses of the Blessed Life, 50 



ENVELOPE SERIES OF BOOKLETS. 



The Chambers of the King. 
With Christ in Separation. 
Seven Rules for Daily Living. 
The Secret of Victory over 

Sin. 
The First Step into the Blessed 

Life. 
Words of Help for Christian 

Girls. 
The Filling of the Holy Spirit. 
The Stewardship of Money. 
In the Secret of His Presence. 



Where am I Wrong ? 
Young Men, Don't Drift ! 
The Lost Chord Found, 
Why Sign the Pledge ? 
The Secret of Power. 
The Secret of Guidance 
Peace, Perfect Peace 
How to Read your Bible. 
Burdens, and What to 

with Them. 
The Blessed Dead. 
Not Eradication. 



20c. per dozen, or $1.50 per 100. 

Choice Extracts from Mr. Meyer's writings, com- 
piled by Rev. B. Fay Mills, 5c. or 35c. per doz. 

Any of the above sent post-free to any address on re- 
ceipt of price. 



FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY. 



Mork0 M S)r. Stalker 



ITbe %itC Ot Cbrfat^ a new edition, revised. 

i2mo. i66 pages, cloth. Price 6oc. 

"This task of authorship has a freshness that does 
not fade or disappear. It is a remarkably lucid, accu- 
rate and suggestive analysis of the Christ Life which is 
presented in this hook. We value it as a rare manual 
for the study of the Divine man. Mr. Stalker possesses 
the gift of literary etching. He takes his pencil and, 
with a few lines, he puts a life like and realistic picture 
upon his c2i,nYQ,ss.' '—Chrisiian Weekly. 

XLbC %itC ot SU pauL i2mo. 183 pages, 

cloth. Price 60C. 

"An exceedingly compact life of the Apostle to the 
Gentiles. It is bristling with information, and is brief, 
yet clear. As an outline of Paul's life it cannot be 
surpassed."— JV^. Y. Christian Inquirer. 

?EbC jfOUt SSCXi^ Chaste paper covers, i6mo. 
32 pages. Price 20c. 

1. The Man the World Sees. 2. The Man Seen by the 
Person Who Knows Him Best. 3. The Man Seen by 
Himself. 4. The Man Whom God Sees. "Popular 
Vellum Series." 

"It is direct, forcible, and searching, and cannot fail 
to accomplish good wherever it goes.""— Christian at 
Work. 

tCemptation: a ^alft to Kouns l&cn. Chaste 

paper covers. i6mo. 32 pages. Price 2cc. 

"Of the well well known authors of to-day, perhaps 
none holds a more enviable prominence than this valu- 
able and suggestive writer." 



Fleming H. Revell Co, 



CHICAGO K ftminS H. KfiVfl 0. NEW York 



prof. Drummonb's Mork0. 

▼ T T T T T 

aDDre96C0 bs prot Ibenr^ BrummonD, 

t. TR. S. JB.f 3F» ©♦ S» With brief sketch of 
the Author by Eev. W. J. Dawson. An excel- 
lent portrait of Prof. Drummond is inserted as 
a frontispiece. Cloth, 12mo, 75c. 
Ck)NTENT8. — Love ; the Supreme Gift, the Greatest 
Thing in the World. II. The Perfected Life; the Great- 
est Need of the World. III. Dealing: with Doubt. IV. 
Preparation for Learning. V. The Study of the Bible. 
VI. " First ; " an Address to Boys. 

The simple announcement of the publication of these 
addresses in permanent form is sufficient to insure a 
wide circulation. 

{popular Dcllum Series. 
Chaste Paper Covers, ISmo, S2 pages, each 20c. 
May also he had with very choice hand-painted floral 
designs on covers each 50c. 

•fcow to Xcarn 'fcow* 

Addresses. I. Dealing with Doubt. II. Preparation 
for Learning. 

Issued in anticipation that the same hearty reception 
will be given this little booklet that has been accorded 
the former volumes. 

^be pertecteD Xtfe ; 

The Greatest Need of the World. 

If you haven't it send for it. It will do you and yours 
good. — The Standard. 

%ove, tbe Supreme ©itt ; 
> The Greatest Thing in the World. 

"Worth its weight in ^old ; so pointed, so sweet, so 
practical, so full of the spirit of Christ. Procure it, read 
It. lay it to your heart," — Religious Telescope. 



New York. FLEMING H. REVELL CO. Chicago. 



WOEKS BY 0. H. SPURCtEOiW 



My Sermon Notes. Genesis to 
12nio., cloth 

My Sermon Notes 
12mo., cloth 

My Sermon Notes. 
cloth 

My Sermon Notes 



Proverbs. 

. . $1.00 

Ecclesiastes to Malachi. 

si.oo 

Matthew to Acts. 12mo. , 

....$1.00 

Romaas to Revelation. 



Isimo., cloth $1 00 

'* Every paragraph opens a mme of riches.^' 

—Interior. 
Feathers for Arrows; or, I lustrations for 

Preachers and Teachers. 12mo., cloth $1.00 

The Golden Alphabet. A Devotional Com- 

meatary on the 119th Psalm. ]2mo., cloth $1.00 

Spurgeon's Gems. i2mo., cloth Sl.OO 

Gleanings Among the Sheaves. 18mo., 

cloth, gilt top 60 

All of Grace, A book for those seeking the way 

of life. 16mo., paper, 30c. ; cloth . . 50 

According to Promise; or, The Lord's Deal- 
ings with His chosen People. 16mo., paper, 30c.; 

cloth 50 

Twelve Christmas Sermons. 8vo., 146 

pages, cloth 50 

Twelve New Year Sermons. 8vo., 146 

pages, cloth 50 

Twelve Sermons on the Resurrection. 

8vo., 146 pages, cloth 50 

"Preachers may get aid in preparing Easter or 
funeral sermons from this volume. Goodto present to 
those who have lost loved ouQ^y— National Baptist. 
Twelve Soul Winning Sermons. 8vo., 146 

pa«es, cloth 50 

Selected by Mr. Spurgeon as the twelve sermons 
under which there have been the most marked and 
permanent results. 
Twelve Striking Sermons. 8vo., 146 pages, 

cloth 50 

Sent Postpaid on receipt of Price. 



FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY. 

NEW YORK : I CHICAGO : 

30 Union Square : East. J 148-150 Madison Street 

Fubiishers of Evangelical Literature. 



:fis^ w.%. lix^oo^'q. 



THE WAY TO GOD. 127th Thousand. 

A Series of Addresses on the way of Salvation. 
Tinted covers, 30c ; Cloth, 60c. 

"It puts the way so plainly that 'he who runs may 
read.'"' — Religious Telescope. 

"An excellent manual for the soul-winner and the 
awakened sinner, which we trust will be the means of 
leading thousands to Christian life and heaven."— Zi- 
on's Herald. 

'Full of pathos, point and power. Cannot fail to be 
the means of quickening and blessing wherever read." 
— Methodist. 



SOVEREIGN GRACE: ISth Thousand. 

Its Source, Its Nature, and Its Effects. 

Paper covers, 30c; Cloth, 60c. 

"Rich in all that simple evangelistic teaching of 
which Mr. Moody is a master, the book cannot fail to 
be very u^qImV— Christian Jige. 

"Full of precious Pauline truth forcibly and famil- 
iarly put, and pressed home with power."— /" 
Beyond. 



BIBLE CHARACTERS. 15th Thousand. 

Paper covers, 30c; Cloih, 60c. 

CONTENTS. 



Daniel the Prophet. 

Enoch. 

Joseph of Arimathea, 



Jacob. Lot. 
John the Baptist. 
The Blind Man. 



"Mr Moody goes right into the heart of his subject, 
and in a few words shows his reader the great truth or 
principle involved, teaching lessons for all time and all 
generations. In his hands the Bible is a living book." 
—Christian Age. 



J8i2 2)* X. U^oob^. 



HEAVEN: 



133th Thousand. 



Its Hopes. Its Inhabitants, 

Its Riches, Its Rewards. 
Paper covers, 30c; Cloth, 60c. 

"While adapted to the humblest capacity, it will com- 
mand the attention of the miature and the thoughtful.'' 
—National Presbyterian. 

^'Mr. Moody is sure of an audience, and well deserves 
a large one for this hoo^.''— Presbyterian Witness. 

"Mr. Moody's unfaltering faith and rugged enthusi- 
asm are manifested on every page." — Christian Advo- 
cate. 

"Eminently scriptural, earnest and impressive, will 
be welcomed by thousands." — Zion's Herald. 



SECRET POWER: Slst Thousand. 

Or, the Secret of Success in 

Christian Life and Christian Work. 
Paper covers, 30c; Cloth, 60c. 

"Every page is full of stimulating thought for Chris- 
tian workers." — Christian Commonwealth. 

"Let all Christians who would succeed in leading a 
holy life and accomplishing the noblest work on earth, 
read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest its richly-varied 
and incalculably-precious itages.^'— Methodist New Con- 
nexion Magazine, 



"TO THE WORK! SSth Thousand. 

TO THE WORK!" 

A Series of Trumpet Calls to Christian Sejivice. 

Paper covers, 30c ; Cloth, 60c. 

"The prayerful study of this volume cannot fail to 
prove helpful and inspiring to all Christian workers, 
and to all who are aspiring to be like Christ in their 
love for souls and zeal for their ^dANsXion.''— Presbyte- 
rian. 



:fiS^ 2)»X* /IRooD^. 



38th Thousand. 

PREVAILING PRAYER: 

A Series of Addresses on Prayer. 

Paper covers, 30c ; Cloth, 60c. 

" It is most searching and powerful in its appeals to 
the conscience, and abounds in well-told incidents.'*— 
Lay Preacher. 

"The name of the author of this hook is sufficient to 
recommend it without any words from us. It is essen- 
tially a volume for Christian people."— r/ie Preachers'' 
Analyst. 

188th Thousand. 

TWELVE SELECT SERMONS. 

Revised by Himself. 
Paper covers, 33c; Cloth, 60c. 

"Mr. Moody's happy style, abounding in striking 
anecdotes and illustrations, makes it a most readable 
and convincing volume." — The Watchman. 

" Full of earnest enthusiasm which characterizes 
everything Mr. Moody does, and will be read with in- 
tevest.''— Detroit Free Press. 

70th Thousand . 

THE WAY AND THE WORD. 

16mo., Paper, 15c; Cloth, 25c. 
A neat little volume containing a treatise on Mr. 
Moody's favorite topic, '"Regeneration;" also, his 
thoughts on Bible study, the whole prefaced by a per- 
sonal introduction. 



15th Thousand. 

THE FULL ASSURANCE 

OF FAITH: 

Some Thoughts on Christian Confidence. 
16mo., Paper, 15c. 

"One of the most pointed and practical works the 
evangelist has yet \\ritten.'"— Christian Leader 



36^ B* %. ^005k?* 



63rd Thousand. 

THE SECOND COMING 

OF CHRIST. 

i6mo., Paper, 10c. 
Cheap Edition, for general distribution, 35c. per dozen 
"Characterized by devout thoughtfullness, deep rev- 
erence for Holy Writ, and cogent reasoning on behalf 
of the pre-millennial Advent of Christ.''— Irish Baj)- 
tist Magazine. 

INQUIRY MEETINGS. lOth Thousand. 

16mo., Paper cover, 15c. 
/ By Messrs. D. L. Moody and Whittle. Comprising 
How to Conduct Inquiry Meetings," by D. L. Moody, 

and "The Use of the Bible in Inquiry Meetings." by D. 

W. Whittle. 

DANIEL THE PROPHET. 13th Thousand. 
Paper covers, 20c; Cloth, 40c. 
"To the author Daniel is simply a specimen of the 
kind of life grace can produce; and, let us add the 
kind of life needed in men of to-day. The book is brief, 
telling, and full of Scripture truth; just the book to 
put into the hands of a young man who wants to walk 
in the na^rrow wdy/'— Congregational Magazine. 



SMALL BOOKS BY D. L. MOODY. 

Very neatly printed on tinted paper; and especially 
adapted tor enclosing in the ordinary envelope. 

Per packet, containing one each of following, 35c. 

Good News. 
"Where Art Thou?" 
There is no Difference. 



"Love that passeth 

Knowledge.' 
Christ All and in All. 
The Two C lasses. 
Christ Seeking Sinners. 



Let the Wicked Forsake 
his Way. 

The Work of the Holy 
Spirit. 

Repentance and Restitu- 
tion. 

"Dare to be a Daniel ! " 

Plain Words on Conver- 
sion. 



A 



